Google may have stated its intention to photograph the ‘great majority’ of Britain’s roads for its controversial Street View mapping website.

But when the internet firm’s car arrived to capture the historic village of Broughton on camera, it was the locals who snapped.

Fearing the images could be used by burglars to scout for suitable homes to raid, villagers formed a human barrier in the road to stop the Street View car in its tracks.

And they emerged victorious after forcing the vehicle to turn around and leave the village.

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Resident Paul Jacobs told how the impromptu protest unfolded on Wednesday when he spotted the car – which was unmarked but featured the tell-tale 360-degree rotating camera fixed on a pole on its roof – cruising slowly down his lane in the Buckinghamshire village.

A d v e r t i s e m e n t

He dashed outside, confronted the driver and told him that he was not allowed to continue, before alerting police.

Mr Jacobs, 43, then knocked on his neighbours’ doors and a crowd of angry residents surrounded the black Opel Astra, forcing it to make a U-turn and quickly leave.

Mr Jacobs, who works for a global entertainment company, described Street View as a ‘burglar’s dream’.